I believe in replacing the death penalty and life in prison with life in a labor camp. Why kill off potentially valuable resources?

What

The death penalty is horribly flawed and bad policy all around, and this point has been beaten to death. I won't bother going into this.

That said, what's unreasonable about my proposal? What's the point of sticking a bunch of criminals in an enormous complex and babysitting them for the rest of their life? Why is it better to put convicted murderers and rapists in government storage when they could be contributing back to society via a labor program?

Um because that's basically the same idea as taking away someone's human rights for practicing a certain religion and subsequently forcing them to work themselves to death in a labour camp?

I agree that people in prison should be doing some kind of work. But it shouldn't be harsh in the way that "labor camp" would imply, and there should be some element of choice about the type of work. Some type of restitution from the offender is important.

I certainly agree with the bolded part, but I'm not sure how protecting rapists and murderers from "harsh" labor accomplishes this. Let me emphasize the point that I am not suggesting we convert the entire prison/jail system into a system of "labor camps"; this would be a punishment for offenders of the highest degrees (rape, murder, terrorism, etc). There could be a less rigid community service program for lower level offenders.

People who commit the worst crimes still ought to be treated with some basic level of respect as human beings. Otherwise you end up with Abu Ghraib.

I agree that people in prison should be doing some kind of work. But it shouldn't be harsh in the way that "labor camp" would imply, and there should be some element of choice about the type of work. Some type of restitution from the offender is important.

I certainly agree with the bolded part, but I'm not sure how protecting rapists and murderers from "harsh" labor accomplishes this. Let me emphasize the point that I am not suggesting we convert the entire prison/jail system into a system of "labor camps"; this would be a punishment for offenders of the highest degrees (rape, murder, terrorism, etc). There could be a less rigid community service program for lower level offenders.

People who commit the worst crimes still ought to be treated with some basic level of respect as human beings. Otherwise you end up with Abu Ghraib.

What is inhumane or undignified about forced labor that isn't the same with forced storage? Either way, you are forcing a human being out of free society. In one instance forcing them to contribute back to society, on the other forcing them to live in a box.

All of those crimes together? Meh, I guess life without the possibility of parole. Though in real life I'd like to do a Scandinavian option, where we send the criminals to a nice little retreat on some majestic island where loving and caring counselors give them hugs, tell them they are misunderstood, and that they do have a purpose in life.

I'm strongly against the death penalty for the exact same reasons I'm against abortion. I feel we need a certain respect for life within the country and we shouldn't just select what doesn't get to have that right to life.

Regardless of what the punishment de jour may be, it shall never be applied to the right people. Such was true of the boiling in oil, the electric chair, the injection, the psychiatric internment, and no doubt it will be true of the genetic brainwashing cure.

I'd be glad to turn every common murderer in the country free if we could trade them for the top 0.1% under the guillotine.

I don't like the use of "but what about life without parole?" to sway people in this matter. There are crimes for which allowing the offender to continue living, even in prison without the chance of parole, would be too generous.

You think why there are so many death row inmates who are voluintairly drooping all efforts to fight their sentences in order to be executed? Because living in prison without any chance of getting away is worse than death.

I think for death penalty proponents, it's worth thinking about what exactly life imprisonment entails.

And if you read all the accounts of prison rape, forced 'marriages', and auctions of said 'brides', it's easy to understand why such a sentence would be a fate worse than death. Particularly for those who are not physically gifted by nature.

I think for death penalty proponents, it's worth thinking about what exactly life imprisonment entails.

And if you read all the accounts of prison rape, forced 'marriages', and auctions of said 'brides', it's easy to understand why such a sentence would be a fate worse than death. Particularly for those who are not physically gifted by nature.

Well of course most 'civilized' countries don't include rape and severe emotional and physical abuse in the standard punishment they dole out to even the most banal of criminals. Might want to fix that one too.